Not the Time for Fanfiction
by Alex Perth
Summary: Cath is stressed out and goes to Levi for comfort. Usually reading fanfics calms her down but even she thinks it's not the time or the place to be reading fanfiction.


"You're _calling_me," Levi said, answering his phone on the first ring.

"You answered," Cath replied, grinning. "I need to see you."

"You will! In thirty minutes!"

She sighed. "Please, Levi, Wren is driving me crazy. Just for a minute. This is all just too much." She felt like crying. She didn't want to feel like crying. Not today.

It was his turn to sigh. She could _hear_him run his fingers through his hair. "Fine."

She knew he'd crack. "Okay, but where?"

"You're the mastermind of this operation; you figure it out. Or we could just keep talking on here and I'll meet you in thirty minutes."

"_Levi_," she huffed. "How about your bedroom?"

"I don't know, Sweetheart, I mean, we only have half–an-hour."

She rolled her eyes. "Your room. Now."

He grinned. "Okay. Knock first though."

She hung up and left her room in a hurry, ignoring everyone that questioned her on her way.

She knocked on Levi's door and entered the room in the same breath. A door slammed as she did.

Levi's voice called from behind the closet door, "Geesh! Are you crazy?"

"Said the man hiding the in the closet," she yelled from the other side of the door.

"Well I'm not standing out there with you."

"Why not?"

"Wh-_what_? You do know about this right?"

"I said I needed to _see_you," she whined.

She pulled on the door but he counter-pulled.

"Levi!"

"Cather!" he mocked, dramatically. "You know I'm a fan of giving you anything you want, but I am not budging on this one."

She knew she was beat and leaned against the door, allowing herself to slide down it to the floor, sending her dress puffing out around her.

"I don't want to do this," she said quietly, her nose stinging with emotion.

"You know, for a girl with an English degree, that was a very poor choice in words."

She smiled slightly, blushing. "You know I don't mean I don't want this – I want _this._I want _us._ I just don't want…_this_." She grasped pieces of white fabric in her fists and wrinkled her nose.

"You know I can't see you right?"

She huffed. He laughed.

"You're so beautiful."

"I thought you said you can't see me."

"I can't."

They sat in that moment and smiled at each other but not at each other.

"I know this is a lot," he reasoned, finally. "But we are worth a lot."

"It's not so much that it's a lot. It's that it's so personal. It's you and me. Not them. Why are they all here? And why do we have to feed them?" She pouted.

"They're here because I love you and you love me. And we're gonna show them its true starting now and going on forever." He paused. "And maybe someday they'll say 'but things are hard - maybe it's not worth it' or you'll say it or I'll say it but we'll have this day to remember that it _is_worth it. And we have to feed them as bribery. It's all a great scheme."

A tear streamed down her face. "I'm sorry. This is all just stressing me out."

Levi wanted to open the door and pull her close to him but he stopped himself.

"Read me a fic," he said simply.

"Levi, we have like twenty minutes."

"We have time for a one-shot," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Even I don't think this is the time or place for some Simon/Baz," she said, defeated.

"Maybe not. I have a fic. It's not Simon/Baz. It's better."

She let out a surprised laugh, "You have a fic?"

"Yes, I do!" he said in fake offense. "I guess you've rubbed off on me."

"Uh-huh," she said in disbelief.

"No, really. I'm going to read it. And don't interrupt. I don't have a lot of time here."

"Carry on, then," she said, grateful for her dorky boyfriend. _Fiancé_, she corrected herself.

"Okay. Here it goes," he then took on a truly horrible British accent. "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl and also a boy and they fell in love."

"Well that was quite the intro, you got right to it, huh?"

"Cather," he warned. He continued in his awful accent. "The girl was amazing and everything about her was wonderful. And the boy was pretty great too."

"The character development here is astounding."

He continued, ignoring her. "And so the boy one day, trembling, asked the girl to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him so they could be happy."

"Oooh, 'trembling,' good word," she teased.

"And then, on the day of their wedding, she came to him in his room and said, 'I don't want to do this' but what she really meant was, 'I'm scared.' And so he said, 'I'm scared too. But I love you and we're going to be fine."

Tears streamed lightly down Cath's cheeks.

Levi hesitated, "Um, the author hasn't written any more."

"I'm excited to see how it ends," Cath said, with a small smile.

"I am too," Levi said, with a bigger smile, a Levi smile. "Cather?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll see you by the lake."

Cath's smile widened. "Okay. I'll see you there."


End file.
